In the scrum | Rugby World Cup 2019: Yokohama Stadium’s big screen test best seen through lens of a telescope
- Remote stadium has become showpiece facility since planned National Stadium failed to be completed
- The ‘Nissan Stadium’ in Yokohama has the highest seating capacity of any stadium in Japan, with 75,000 seats
You can play nice here; it doesn’t take much. Let the genuine hospitality embrace you whole while the ridiculously delicious food and frothy, orgasmic draught beer smother your palette in joy. All of it, pure bliss, produces the most edifying of experiences which can only be described in one word: Japan. I am beyond grateful to this country, which I have had an unshakeable spiritual affinity for since my first arrival almost 30 years ago.
But no matter how many clouds you walk on, how many gyozas you eat or how much Sapporo beer you drink, it cannot change the immediate sense of dread one feels upon entering Yokohama National Stadium. It is simply a soul-sucking monstrosity of an edifice and all the smiles in the world can’t change that.
Of course, it did not have to be this way. The rugby world did not have to be dragged out to Shin Yokohama, which is a remote suburb of a remote suburb and features a hearty hike from a remote railway station to the stadium itself. The mind, and the exhausted, aching feet and legs, can’t help but think about how all of this was so unnecessary. This all could have been happening in a brand new, state of the art stadium in a bucolic parkland area smack dab in the middle of Tokyo.
Although the tournament kicked off on Friday night in Tokyo Stadium with Japan playing Russia, the unofficial opening of the 2019 Rugby World was this weekend in Yokohama, leading off with the heavyweight bout between New Zealand and South Africa on Saturday, followed by Ireland and Scotland the day after. That’s the first, second, fourth and seventh ranked teams in the world, two of which own five of the eight tournament championships. A lot of star power as the rugby world got its first look at Yokohama Stadium this weekend, even if it needed a telescope to do it.